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$24.95
ISBN: 978-0969170518
Requiem for a Lotus
Requiem for a Lotus
A Historical Thriller
Craig H. Bowlsby
Shanghai, July 1917. A civil war rages outside the city. Refugees, criminals, and guns are pouring in. There’s a murder a day.
Kidnapped by a prostitution ring, a young sing-song girl called the Golden Lotus manages to send a cryptic plea for help to Inspector Harmon Fletcher of the Shanghai International Police. Fletcher delays looking for the girl because he’s dealing with many murders. But when he finds her body washed onto the Soochow riverbank, he vows to bring her justice in what becomes his most difficult and dangerous case.
Combining his Canadian prairie hunting experience with modern forensic technique, Fletcher scours Shanghai’s dangerous jigsaw underworld of English, French, and Chinese zones. The conflicting laws and practices of the international enclave hinder the detective at every step, while a surprising romance develops with a confidant of the Golden Lotus. As the pressure mounts amid threats, retribution, and betrayal, the detective brings one killer to justice, but another escapes and Fletcher must sacrifice more than he expected before he’s done.
About the Author
Craig H. Bowlsby lives and writes in Vancouver, BC. He has a BFA in creative writing and film from the University of British Columbia and has also studied under William Deverell, the veteran crime writer, and Don S. Williams, former president of the Director’s Guild of Canada.
Craig has won two Crime Writers of Canada awards, in 2023 for best short story and in 2024 for best unpublished novel. He also won the Historical Fiction Company’s annual award for Best Mystery Novel (Christie Mystery) in 2024.
Several of Craig’s short stories have been published in magazines such as Mystery Magazine, Mystery Tribune, Neo-opsis, Polar Borealis, MetaStellar, Aethlon, etc.
In 2025, Craig’s historical mystery novella, Last Train to Medicine Hat, was awarded an honorable mention at the annual Black Orchid Novella Awards in New York, by the Wolfe Pack and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.
Craig’s hockey history books, The Knights of Winter, Empire of Ice, and 1913, The Year They Invented the Future of Hockey, helped him to win the 2014 Brian McFarlane Award for hockey history writing, presented by the Society for International Hockey Research. He has also written hockey articles for the Seattle Times, The Province (Vancouver), and the Vancouver Canucks program.
Much earlier, in another life, Craig won the Western Canadian Fencing Championships (in foil) five times.
He was also an Expo Ernie robot operator, at Expo 86.
“A blend of cruel historical realism and spicy heroism.”
—Lynda Williams, author of the Okal Rel sci-fi novels
“The meticulous details and rich context are woven seamlessly throughout the narrative… a gripping and atmospheric piece of crime fiction.”
—The Historical Fiction Company’s Book Reviews
“… a turn-of-the-century detective noir thriller that grabs you from the first chase scene… detective Harmon Fletcher promises to linger with readers alongside the likes of Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe.”
—Nina Munteanu, author of the Icaria Trilogy
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Additional book details
More Praise for Requiem for a Lotus
“Bowlsby delivers with Requiem for a Lotus. Seedy dark alleys oozing with intrigue. Shabby wooden shops reeking of cardamom and smoke. Closed-in streets bustling with rickshaws and the cacophonic shouts of vendors and hucksters amid the fragrant breeze of grease, coffee, and incense. This is Shanghai at the turn of the century, a hurly-burly city where teashops employ young sing-song girls for cheap entertainment, where police collect unsolved murders like loose change on the street, and where a Canadian detective can lose himself and his tainted past to solve a murder in the gutters of a corrupt city.
Requiem for a Lotus is a turn-of-the-century detective noir thriller that grabs you from the first chase scene in the city’s boisterous Nanking Road. Inspector Harmon Fletcher is the Shanghai Man. Dark, moody, and obsessed with justice at any cost. He’s the “Dark Wolf,” relentless and most at home in the shadows. Noir detective Harmon Fletcher promises to linger with readers alongside the likes of Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe.”
—Nina Munteanu, author of the Icaria Trilogy
“The extensive research behind this novel is truly impressive. The meticulous details and rich context are woven seamlessly throughout the narrative, allowing readers to fully immerse themselves in the story…. Bowlsby masterfully captures the spirit of early 20th-century Shanghai, portraying its social, political, and economic landscape with historical accuracy. The city’s striking, often disturbing, image is formed by vivid portrayals of Shanghai’s back alleys, hospitals, morgues, pawn shops, opium dens, brothels, and decadent nightlife….
The vivid setting, compelling protagonist, terrifying antagonists, and intriguing plot work together to create a gripping and atmospheric piece of crime fiction. Requiem for a Lotus… is essential reading for enthusiasts of historical thrillers.”
—Historical Fiction Company book reviews, April 2025
“A blend of cruel historical realism and spicy heroism.”
—Lynda Williams, author of the Okal Rel sci-fi novels
ISBN: 1234567891234
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